But her orthodoxy discriminated; ever combative, she threw herself into the religious polemics of the time, and not only came to be on very ill terms with her own parish clergyman, but fell foul of the bishop of the diocese, who seemed to her to treat with insufficient consideration certain letters she addressed to him.

Then it was that, happening to hear a sermon by the Rev.Mr.Bride in an unfashionable church at Hollingford, she found in it a forcible expression of her own views, and straight way selected Mr.Bride from all the Hollingford clergy as the sole representative of Anglicanism.

She spoke of him as "the coming man," prophesied for him a brilliant career, and began to exert herself on his behalf.

Doubtless she would have obtained substantial promotion for the curate of St.John's, had not her own vehemence and Mr.Bride's difficult character brought about a painful misunderstanding between them.

The curate was not what is known as a gentleman by birth; he had the misfortune to count among his near kinsfolk not only very poor, but decidedly ungenteel, persons.